Expert Phone Leaker Evan Blass From Evleaks Profiled By BBC

You know Evan Blass. If you’ve been following the mobile industry for the past several years you might have read his byline on several top tech sites, or most recently, seen some of his leaks through his Twitter account @evleaks. Once anonymous, Blass stepped out of the shadows in June of 2013 but continued publishing leaked photos and information on some of the most high-profile devices to launch this year. Now the BBC has a profile of him.

The BBC shows Blass at his desk, “gathering information from his closely guarded network of sources,” which have helped him earn his reputation as a famous leaker of the newest hardware. He sits at his desk as much as 22 hours per day, the BBC said. No, the profile doesn’t reveal Blass’s heavily guarded sources, who haven’t steered him wrong to date, but it does highlight one of his first leaks back in 2011. He then started @Evleaks to make it into a full-time gig as a professional leaker.

We had a chance to speak with Blass briefly about hist time making a career out publishing information early. “Well, I’m not sure how much of a career it actually was — only two years, although it does feel like I accomplished something,” Blass told TechnoBuffalo. “However, I would never advise this as a career path; it’s not a sustainable way to make a living that provides for one’s future. Leaking may be glamorous, but it is also risky, and difficult to monetize. Stay in school, kids!”

Blass also said that some of the information he has received was in the form of “controlled leaks” provided by phone makers, and that OEMs aren’t always as upset as one might think. “More than one, more than two or three have given me material to leak,” he explained in the BBC profile, noting that leaked information creates early buzz around a product, which can be very beneficial for a phone maker.

BBC also profiles part of Evan’s battle with multiple sclerosis and insomnia, though Blass admits he has been sleeping better since retiring from Evleaks. He published his final goodbye photo yesterday, a picture of the Moto X+1 heading to Verizon Wireless sometime this fall. He’s still getting information, but he says he’s finished publishing it.